Weaver’s Bottom Craft Studio

Specialties

Neil and Mary weave traditional hand woven cloth– bed spreads with names and dates on them as well as dish towels, place mats, book marks, rag rugs, Paper Saver towels, table runners and custom orders.

Mary creates corn shuck dolls in the Ritchie family tradition.

Neil and Mary play the double mountain dulcimer in the studio for guests.

Neil plays flute and Mary plays piano with ‘Knackered and Numb’

Mary and Neil are story tellers.

History

Established in 1977.

I started the business on a day when everything went wrong. All 28 leaks in the roof were leaking and the wood pile and coal pile ran out. I inherited $ 100 from my Godmother and had to make that money grow. When I told a friend we were working to be self-​employed, he said, «That takes a lot of Bottom!» I looked it up. Bottom means– courage, fortitude, staying power, and depth of character. Our shop is at the bottom of a hill.

We started working at home, rented space in the corner of a friends studio, and moved to our own rented studio in 1984.

In 1989 I called the previous owner of our building to complain about his over grown lawn and while on the phone he offered to sell the business to me for $ 1.00 down payment! We moved in the next week. In 1996 the building was hit with a tornado and we had 8 months of repairs from the loss of the roof and the back wall.

Today we are still finishing repairs from that storm and hope to have all the repairs completed in four years.

Meet the Business Owner

Mary C.

Business Owner

I started making paper dolls on a rainy day with my Grandmother in 1953 and started creating Fairy and Elf houses in the forest shortly after that. Today I have finished 11,152 of them.

I started singing in grade school and sang with my sisters all through the 60’s with them. Played base with my Dad Jazz combo and played autoharp for the troops in Vietnam in 1972.

I have four major art pieces in Berea, the largest being a painting of a weaving pattern on the side of our studio, done in 30,000 ¾ inch squares.

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reviews

Arts & Crafts

Mary C. says,

«I love her stuff too. Sandy has a way of finding delightful hand made art and craftpeople’s work.»